Anyone surf in Virginia Beach, VA, USA?

[teaweed]

How is the surf in Virginia Beach? I have a cousin who is moving there, and in my frequent visits to him we'll probably be surfing. Right now we surf in North Florida, and I can imagine that the conditions (and crappiness) of the waves shouldn't differ that much. Also, they just had the ECSC there last month, so the place shouldn't be too bad.

Where are the most common spots?

[SeanGuna]

Surf in Virginia Beach is small like Florida; but with storms comes waves and the week of ECSC (tropical storm Danny) and the week prior (Tropical Storm Bill) gave us waves around 5-14ft. Average wave without it blowing out is 2-4 feet and higher waves and less crowded conditions in the winter.

Spots? You have the North End of VA BEACH (around 85th street) which is decent and not to crowded. You have the ocean front (15th street pier and 1st st jetty) and Crotan which all have similar conditions but are crowded in the summer and I avoid it at all cost. And last you have Sandbridge which is my main spot until winter.

Furthermore Nags Head is only hour and a half away and Hatteras and all its joy is maybe 2-3hrs depending on what spot your hitting up.

Check surfline.com for cam feeds and pictures that are submitted as well as flickr (search Virginia Beach) and you'll see a few ECSC shots posted.

Hope it helps!

[teaweed]

Thanks for the info. We'll definitely check those spots out... I love places that aren't completely empty, but not overly crowded at the same time. How is the line-up out there, pretty laid back? I'd expect the pier to be a little more aggressive than most spots, since that's usually the case.

also, with water temps, you think you can get away with a 3/2 all throughout winter?

[SeanGuna]

Its pretty laid back at most spots except in tourist season at 1st street and crotan. Basic common sense and courtesy goes a long way.

3/2 wetsuit? For most of winter since the water does not get that cold; but the air does. I rock a 4/3 with hood, booties, and gloves in winter; but then I might just rock a spring suit on those rare 70+ degree day in mid winter... I hate east coast weather!

[softcrain12]

The information you give is great..Now i know the place where to stay.it's pretty to stay here and relax.This is a great place to hung on..


Regards

Albert

[teaweed]

I visited this place today. Just wondering about Croatan... I drove around this area, past the Pacific bridge and into the beachside homes. So how to people who do not live in the neighborhood surf there, where do they park their cars? I saw the public access, but no parking.

First street Jetty:


Croatan somewhere at the top of the picture:

[RichD14]

I recently moved to VA Beach from Central Florida, usually surfed cocoa beach and Satellite beach. There are a lot of surfers here and parking is sometimes a bi#tch. VA beach surf is not too much different with the exception of Sebastian Inlet and I would assume New Smyrna inlet as well. It's ok in the fall/winter/spring for east coast but not nearly as good as New Jersey or Outer Banks, they both have a lot more exposure to swell, and can sometimes block VB from getting as good of swells as it could. The good thing is your an hour and a half drive from the OBX which can hold some serious size because your so close to the continental shelf. Don't assume it's good here because it's good during ECSC week, we rarely see "good" conditions. It's a cool area, but jersey's probobly you're best bet if your really trying to find good waves in place you can live.

[SeanGuna]

At Croatan there is parking at the south side near Camp Pendelton. Of course the better break is at the jetties so you can either walk or get dropped off (or park in a renter house during the off season).

And there are spots around Va Beach that has some good spots (as good as we can get without a hurricane or nor'easter off our coast) with no crowds even in summer. Just utilize surfline and charts and local knowledge and you can find surfing with no crowds almost year around.

OBX is always the "day-cation" for my wife and I. Surfing, fishing, and just getting away from tourist makes it worth the slight drive (shorter if you take the ferry out of backbay).

And I would probably pick Virginia Beach living over Jersey living almost any day of the week... despite a difference of maybe 3 inches on a wave. Jersey.. Arm pit of the east coast.....

[teaweed]

Thanks for all the info... there's a good chance I may end up moving there as well. I actually used to live in the Hampton Roads area, back in 95-96 way before I discovered surfing (big snowstorm that winter too). VA Beach is definitely a nice place, and resembles Jacksonville a lot.

[RichD14]

yea Guna I would definately prefer VB living over Jersey any day that's why I live here, but If you log into surfline and check out some of the photos form Jersey surf it's mind blowing, although I'm sure it's freezing

[SeanGuna]

Luckily the water does not get to cold here just the air temp. What sucks now is that we just had that Nor'Easter hit us and I go out to go surfing after checking surfline and local surfshops and see some good swell. Get to my normal chill spot at Little Island Fishing Pier.. and WTF a entire unamanned 500+ barge is washed ashore leaking some chemicals...... WTF! First I hate surfline and the surfshops for not even mentioning this (my wife of course pointed out that it WAS on the news if I just bothered to watch it) but then why and how could they let a barge wash ashore.

So now the sandbars are all gone (which might turn out to be a good thing if you know the spot). Damn Coast Guard and Navy taking breaks during a storm....

[teaweed]

It looks like I'll also be moving to Norfolk/VA Beach sometime early next year. Gonna take a few weeks off to look for a place to rent, and surf some of the spots. I saw pictures of the damage from the storm, and washed up cargo ship on surfline. Same thing happens here in Jacksonville, every once in a while the storm will re-arrange the sandbars, and it usually gets worse afterwards.

[RichD14]

Well at least you won't be in the shark capital in the world anymore lol. I miss Florida sometimes but VA Beach is a fun place to live. The thing here is we have a northeast face, so we get less swell from the south in the summer so it's flat, but in the fall/spring it can get head high. Doesn't even look like the same ocean as the summer, when a Northeaster hits though we really get hit.

[teaweed]

It probably won't be until spring/summer until I move to VA Beach, which is a good thing since I don't think I'm ready to surf in the middle of winter. Right now, here in N Florida, we've been feeling some colder aire/water temps than normal. I never had to use booties here in the last 5 years, and I have had to bust some out this month. I personally don't go out during the peak of a nor'easter, I prefer the cleaner leftovers afterwards.

Do you guys know of any websites that has a daily VA beach surfreport w/ pics?

[teaweed]

well, i've finally moved to VA Beach. Today was the first day I surfed Croatan, and it was crowded since there is a small SE swell. I stayed out of the way of the crowd, and just surfed the leftovers. It's a fun wave, but looks like it has a treacherous shore break at high tide. It does a weird reflecting thing off the shore landscape, and sometimes it mushes out the next wave. It reminds me of a Vilano beach in St. Augustine, FL, which becomes a boogie boarders wave sometimes.

[monkeyfish]

I usually stick to North End or Sandbridge in the middle of summer. Sometimes we'll have 70 degree days in January after all the crowds have left, which is nice... but don't get too comfortable. My brother went out there without a wetsuit on a nice day and the temp dropped down to like 40 within a couple hours.

To answer teaweed: http://www.surfline.com/surf-report/nor ... east_5211/ Great site. At the top, go to Cams & Reports, then Southeast, etc. I check it every day.